THE MEDIA BUSINESS: Advertising; Chevrolet says a single engine can give its 197 dealer ad groups a more powerful voice.

By Stuart Elliott

Published: May 18, 1994

CHEVROLET, in one of the largest efforts ever to consolidate automotive advertising, is encouraging its regional dealer ad associations to work with Lintas Campbell-Ewald, the auto maker's national agency. The eventual goal is to convince most or all of the 197 dealer ad groups to move their accounts from the agencies they now use. That would cost those local and regional agencies an estimated $300 million to $400 million in billings.

The intensive campaign, which began in earnest last month, is pitting a giant marketer and its giant agency against 86 smaller shops. So far, the Davids are ahead; there has been a single convert, the Heartland Chevrolet-Geo Dealers Association in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Dealer groups in several large markets like Atlanta, Chicago, New York and Northern California voted to reject what Chevrolet and Lintas Campbell-Ewald are calling the One Voice Advertising Program and remain with their local agencies. Others, in markets including Los Angeles, have yet to decide.

Though Lintas Campbell-Ewald and its predecessors have handled the Chevrolet account since 1912 -- that's right, 82 years and counting -- the auto maker, like its sibling divisions of the General Motors Corporation, has allowed dealers to choose their own agencies.

But as competition intensifies, and G.M. seeks to turn around the flagging fortunes of Chevrolet, a belief has emerged that the advantages of sales pitches joining the factory and its dealers outweigh any benefits of local autonomy. The change is being proposed as Lintas Campbell-Ewald introduces "Genuine Chevrolet," the division's first new campaign since 1986.

"We're pressing the envelope, trying to define a way to harness more energy for the dealer associations," Jeff Hurlbert, general marketing manager for Chevrolet in Warren, Mich., said yesterday, "with the net result better performance in the marketplace."

Chevrolet wants one dealer ad group in each of its 14 regional sales territories to voluntarily participate for at least a year in a "Business Builders Test Program," under which advertising would be handled by a new retail automotive division established by Lintas Campbell-Ewald, whose current national Chevrolet billings exceed $200 million. The division is headed by Frank Raine, Chevrolet's regional marketing director, on loan to the agency, and Nick Popely, who handled Ford dealer ad groups at J. Walter Thompson Chicago.

As an incentive, participants will receive bonus money from Chevrolet to pay for more advertising.

The intent is to "establish a dual client" and eliminate the problems of "having disparate voices, sometimes counterpositioning products," said Anthony J. Hopp, president of Lintas Campbell-Ewald in Warren, because "consumers don't discern which Chevrolet is talking."

"You think of the kind of impact you can have with a unified advertising and marketing voice and the media clout," he added.

One of Chevrolet's leading competitors, the American Honda Motor Company, decided in October that it would require dealer ad groups to use its agency, Rubin Postaer & Associates in Santa Monica, Calif. Three months later, Rubin Postaer began taking over for the 50 local shops that had worked for 81 groups, adding those billings, estimated to exceed $100 million, to its own national account, with billings around $150 million.

"When you have 50 different agencies, you have the opportunity for 50 different ways to communicate the Honda brand," said Gerry Rubin, president and chief executive at Rubin Postaer. "You want a consistency of message delivery, in look and tone, so the advertising all feeds off itself."

To serve the dealers, Rubin Postaer formed a division, RP Alpha, and opened eight offices around the country. While "one month does not a career make," Mr. Rubin said, in April, the first full month of RP Alpha operations, national Honda sales rose 17.6 percent from April 1993. The gains were led by the Accord, which rose 27.7 percent and was the No. 1 nameplate.

Tom Krebsbach Jr., president of the Heartland dealer group, said that while "at first, I was very much opposed" to the One Voice program, "the concept makes sense."

"If we sell the cars we have quicker, we earn it back quicker -- 'turn and earn.' "

Strong has retained 17 other Chevrolet dealer ad groups, including Atlanta's, with billings of around $25 million. "We were the only ones to lose one," said Ray La Lone, president at Strong, "but we only lost one."

He added: "Even so, the entire program is wrong, so to lose even one is a travesty. You have to have people closer to a retail orientation to execute traffic-building advertising."

"Localization of the product advertising is important," he said, because "the core vehicles that do the largest percentage of business for a dealer vary from area to area."

Some agency executives have suggested that Chevrolet form a consortium of shops, selected from the best-performing of the 86, which would use their expertise in retail advertising to produce local work.

Mr. Hurlbert said while that "is certainly a possibility down the road, with one agency there are bottom-line efficiencies."